throawaylondon3

That's great until that major brand goes bust. At least in London you have hundreds of major brands.

I did find it quite easy. I just followed up with a recruiter, went to interview and got the job. You usually have to start fairly quickly so have some holiday banked up so you can leave permanent work sooner.

The work, culture, etc is similar to any other permanent job I've had. As long as you keep up to date and are good you'll be fine. Other companies may differ wildly I'm sure

Senior front end developer. 4 years experience. Now a contractor on my first project at £350/day in a big company. Expecting this to rise to 400/450 for the next gig. A few months ago I was full time at a startup on £52K.

Are you a team lead or architect or similar? This seems high for just a web developer